Once again I am dealing with the chocolate makers who have some of the finest wrapping paper in the business for their chocolate bars. A lovely fleur-de-Lis print.
Mast Brothers in Brooklyn, NY. Dark Chocolate + Almonds, Sea Salt, and Olive Oil. Using Madagascar cocoa beans and handmade techniques to make some fine bean-to-bar offerings.
Something I have come to love about the Mast Brothers, is subtly. I have had their chocolate before and I have requested more for review. My buddy Shane Welch of Sixpoint Craft Ales in Brooklyn, often hooks me up with Mast Brothers Chocolate. But having their Dark Chocolate + Sea Salt or their Dark Chocolate + Salt and Pepper, the balance is soft and delicate on these bars. The salt is present but never overwhelming and the pepper on the salt and pepper bar is unique and worked incredibly well with chocolate.
There is also another connection to Mast Brothers that I fully support. It's their motto of American Craft. As someone who works in the craft beer industry, the idea of American Craft is something I fully appreciate and understand. Our bean-to-bar producers in the US are really coming around and making some unbelievably good chocolate. The rest of the world should sit up and take notice. As they should sit up and take notice of our craft beer scene. It's the best in the world!
Type: Flavored, Bittersweet, 72%
Bean Varietal: Unknown, Madagascar beans
Ingredients: Cocoa, cane sugar, almonds, sea salt, olive oil.
Appearance: Smooth and shiny surface, almond covered underside a few streaky lines on the underside with the almonds, simple non-monogrammed molding.
Score: 93
Snap: Light, airy snap. Firm, but relatively light with an audible snap sound.
Score: 91
Aroma: Dry roasted cocoa, slight medicinal, slightly tarry, a light tart and astringent aroma.
Score: 93
Taste: Salty almonds, tart cocoa, hints of cherries, astringent cocoa, medicinal notes, and hints of tar.
Score: 96
Texture: Smooth creamy chocolate with medium melt time, with crunchy, salty almonds.
Score: 94
I don't know if I am all the way sold on the Mast Brothers using Madagascar beans as their primary base for their bars, but in this case I am very sold. The tart and astringent cocoa was balanced by the salty almonds. The nutty taste of the almonds and the salt really interact well with the brightness of the cocoa and the cherry flavors and medicinal tar flavors. Harder to detect any discernible wood flavors like cedar which is classic for a lot of Madagascar beans due to the almonds, but the almonds are a welcomed flavor.
This is a delicious bar of chocolate and very easy on the eyes with the gorgeous almonds. But unfortunately without the almonds I believe this bar of chocolate would be unbalanced. I think they need a little more work in taming these Madagascar beans. Also the almonds helped tone down a bit of the tar characters and minty medicinal notes. It's still there on the taste, but thanks to the salt and almonds, it's covered up pretty good. Or a better way to look at is is that those flavors are blended into the background more.
Still, this was very enjoyable. I enjoyed crunching this one up. I love salted almonds and these were just right on this bar.
Final Score: 93.4
A-
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